www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

As an update to the "kitchen supplier recommendations" thread - kitchen-supplier-recommendations-t69832.html

Here are a few progress pictures of my kitchen. The old kitchen was about 10 years old and although it didn't look too bad at first glance, it was rough, didn't give us enough storage space and had all sorts of broken drawer runners, missing shelves and rotten base units due to an old leak.

The room itself was a bit of a mess too, about 15 years ago the kitchen was extended by taking over the integral garage. The new floor was not level and there were 3 different artex patterns on the ceiling. The room was also very dark due to a small window and poor lighting. Lastly the tiled floor was dated and very difficult to clean because of the thick grout lines.

A few pictures to give you the general idea

Day 1 was spent taking out the kitchen and building a temporary one in the lounge, taking tiles off the walls (I really tried to be careful but it destroyed the walls), lifting tiles off the floor and taking the ceiling down. I looked at getting the ceiling skimmed but as the bedroom and bathroom are upstairs, taking up the floors for lighting cables was going to difficult so I decided to take the ceiling down. At this point I wondered what I had got myself in for

Day 2 and 3 were spent putting up a ceiling and boarding the walls. I could have (and probably should have) had a plasterer in to skim the ceiling and plaster the walls but I decided to board, fill and tape them.

As you can see from the pictures, there are 2 cold water feeds going from the main to the sink? I have since capped 1 off and put in a new waste pipe.

Floor was levelled a few nights back so once dry I spent the next day fitting Quickstep flooring to match the rest of the downstairs of the house, right up until I ran out of flooring

I checked the piece of paper on my desk where I worked out how much I needed and it said 13 boxes of flooring but the invoice said 11. I still cant work out if it was my mistake or the lady on the phone but at least it didn't stop progress as I was far enough over that I could crack on with the kitchen fitting.

Edit - The room also got decorated just before the floor went down.

Base units went in on Christmas eve before going off to my Mum for a few days

Next up was wall units, under counter lights, ducting for cooker hood, end panels, cornice/pelmet and a filler panel. I also plumbed in the washing machine and dishwasher as I was getting earache about the Mrs having to wash dishes in the bath

Next up was fitting 2 larder cupboards around the fridge plus pelmet and decorative end panel. My OCD kicked in and rather than have a beer and watch telly I decided to fit the skirting

Rounded corners and end panels went onto the base units as well as the plinths.

That is pretty much where I am today. I am waiting for the granite man to come and template so the worktops can be made and fitted. Once he has done this I can fit the glass splash back and then the cooker hood.

I also have 2 boxes of flooring left to fit when those arrive on Friday.

Other than that, it is just filling a few imperfections that I have found along the way, lining up the doors, a bit of silicone and caulk and a some general tidying up.

Nearly there and I am pleased too, I am exhausted. I have lost track slightly but I think it has taken about 10 days so far working on my own. Some of those days were short because of outings with the kids but some have been 12 or 14 hour days.

That looks much better

I love the curved ends, I have not seen them before!

lookin good mate. those curved ends are cool like. i fitted a gloss white kitchen in our house from howdens last year. but ours is just basic decor ends. no fancy curved stuff. dunno if howdens do em like that.

we fitted a quickstep floor in our kitchen too. what sorta worktops are you going for? we fitted gloss bush board tops on our kitchen. cant remember of the top of my head what the name of the design was though.

what ive found to work quite well is having decor ends where appliances are going if they arent built in appliances. a bit extra but it looks canny imo

That looks loads better

I really like the kitchen and have been following the other thread but did you like using DIY?

Thanks for the comments. We are pleased with the rounded edges, they make it a bit different.

Nick, would highly recommend DIY. Not a bad word to say about them.

Fin, we have ordered black granite with a upstand in the same material. I was going to fit decor ends but space is really tight on that wall as there is a door to the hall just out of picture. The 2 x 18mm panels would cause the worktop to go past the architrave. I am going to replace the dishwasher with an integrated at some point, sadly I ran out of cash right now.

Thanks dandan, always good to go on recommendations

lovely floor, love the way you have changed direction in the hallway. I did this too with mine and glued in hardwood thresholds from B+Q way better than laminate ones and are pretty solid.